This introduction traces the disappearance of Chinese family businesses
from 1949 to 1978, their revival since then, and their future
challenges. It then summarizes the three papers included in this Special
Issue and proposes an agenda for family business studies in China. The
article first focuses on the nonmarket social and political network
strategies that these family-centered business organizations have had to
adopt in order to overcome the difficulties they faced in accessing
opportunities and resources as a result of Chinese culture's traditional
low esteem for merchants and the government's continuing preference for
a state-dominated economy. Family firms have so far been able to grow
disproportionately rapidly in China's economy because, by leveraging the
shared interests and dedication of immediate and extended family
members, they have been able to achieve lower cost and higher
efficiency, respond quickly to market changes, and expand social and
political networks. These nonmarket strategies, however, also have a
dark side. Furthermore, as the liberalization of China's economy
deepens, competition must rely critically on market strategies such as
innovation, alliances, and internationalization. The proposed research
agenda addresses these future challenges as well as some research
questions unique to Chinese family businesses.

2

Governance Structure and Related Party Loan Guarantees: The Case of
Chinese Family Business Groups

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Chen, Xin; Arnoldi, Jakob; Na, Chaohong

3

Why Do Family-controlled Firms Donate to Charity? The Role of
Intrafamily Succession Intention, Social Status, and Religiosity

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Li, Weiwen; Au, Kevin Yuk-fai; He, Ai; Song, Lihong

4

Internationalization and Performance of Chinese Family Firms: The
Moderating Role of Corporate Governance

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Lu, Jane Wenzhen; Liang, Xueji; Shan, Mengmeng; Liang, Xiaoya

Highly Recommend

This study investigates the differential effects of internationalization
on two dimensions of family firms’ performance: growth and
profitability. Drawing on the contingency theory, we argue that the
successful implementation of internationalization strategy requires an
appropriate organization structure, which is usually absent in Chinese
family firms. To the extent that such a structure is established, these
firms can realize greater benefits from internationalization. From a
sample of 225 family firms in China, our predictions receive empirical
support. We find that internationalization has a positive impact on
growth but a negative impact on profitability. The negative
internationalization–firm profitability relationship highlights the
challenges internationalizing Chinese family firms face. The positive
moderating effect of corporate governance, a critical component of
organization structure, underscores the need for appropriate corporate
governance to support the implementation of strategy. The findings have
important practical implications for the internationalization of Chinese
family firms.

5

The Quality of Local Government and Firm Performance: The Case of
China's Provinces

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Choi, Jongmoo Jay; Jiang, Cao; Shenkar, Oded

6

Market Governance and Firm Performance under China's State Capitalism

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Fuller, Douglas B.; Shih, Victor; Tao, Ran

Highly Recommend

Choi, Jiang, and Shenkar (2015) offer an interesting and new perspective
on the relationship between local governance and firm performance in
China. This commentary focuses first on how we conceive of the nature of
China's capitalism and then examines what that suggests about their
metrics and findings.

7

Ownership and M&A Performance in a Transitional Economy: The Case of the
Chinese Real Estate Industry

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Yang, Hongyan; Ru, Jing; Ren, Ting

Highly Recommend

In a transitional economy such as China's, when resources are unevenly
distributed across different sectors, the disadvantaged sector may seek
a growth path that bypasses resource constraints. We investigated this
phenomenon in the context of the Chinese real estate industry. By
comparing the post–merger and acquisition (M&A) performance of acquiring
firms between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately-owned
enterprises (POEs), we attempted to show that POEs are better performers
in the market should they be granted equitable resources, and the
superior performance is strengthened by market-oriented institutional
environment. We used M&A events data of publicly listed real estate
firms in China from 2004 to 2012, in conjunction with firm
characteristics and province-level market environment data. We found the
results to be consistent with our hypotheses. In particular, compared to
SOEs, privately-owned acquiring firms tend to have better post-M&A
performance when both the regions of the acquirer and the target have
high level of marketization. The results suggest that the private sector
in China's transitional economy is potentially more efficient than the
state-owned sector, as long as the market environment is favorable.

8

Paternalistic Leadership, Team Conflict, and TMT Decision Effectiveness:
Interactions in the Chinese Context

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Chen, Lu; Yang, Baiyin; Jing, Runtian

Highly Recommend

In this article, we propose that types of CEO paternalistic leadership
will affect the effectiveness of top management team (TMT) decisions,
and that team conflict will play a mediating role in the relationship
between CEO paternalistic leadership and decision effectiveness in the
Chinese context. Data collected from 108 TMTs in China suggest that
dimensions of paternalistic leadership significantly affect decision
effectiveness: benevolent and moral leadership positively affect TMT
decision effectiveness, but authoritarian leadership has negative
effects on TMT decision effectiveness. In addition, cognitive and
affective team conflicts partially mediate the links between
paternalistic leadership types and decision effectiveness. The results
suggest that CEO paternalistic leadership approaches and conflict modes
significantly determine TMT decision effectiveness.

9

Poetry and Leadership in Light of Ambiguity and Logic of Appropriateness

MOR

2015-December

11(4)

Xing, Yijun; Liu, Yipeng

1

A Structural Model of Employee Behavioral Dynamics in Enterprise Social
Media

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Yan Huang, Param Vir Singh, Anindya Ghose

2

Which Skills Matter in the Market for CEOs? Evidence from Pay for CEO
Credentials

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Antonio Falato, Dan Li, Todd Milbourn

3

Hedging with Futures: Does Anything Beat the Naïve Hedging Strategy?

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Yudong Wang, Chongfeng Wu, Li Yang

4

Hedge Funds and Stock Market Efficiency

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Joni Kokkonen, Matti Suominen

5

Political Values, Culture, and Corporate Litigation

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Irena Hutton, Danling Jiang, Alok Kumar

6

Goal Setting and Monetary Incentives: When Large Stakes Are Not Enough

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Brice Corgnet, Joaquín Gómez-Miñambres, Roberto Hernán-González

7

Entry and Subcontracting in Public Procurement Auctions

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Nicola Branzoli, Francesco Decarolis

8

The Effect of Social Interaction on Economic Transactions: Evidence from
Changes in Two Retail Formats

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Avi Goldfarb, Ryan C. McDevitt, Sampsa Samila, Brian S. Silverman

9

Privacy and Marketing Externalities: Evidence from Do Not Call

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Khim-Yong Goh, Kai-Lung Hui, Ivan P. L. Png

10

When Should Firms Expose Themselves to Risk?

MS

2015-December

61(12)

Alexei Alexandrov

11

Prospect Theory Explains Newsvendor Behavior: The Role of Reference
Points